It is often desired to have multiple tools available for completing work on a workpiece. In the past, this has been accomplished by providing a work area having several work benches, wherein each bench has a different tool mounted thereon. While this arrangement is workable, it requires considerable space, if several different tools are needed, and it requires that the workpiece be moved between each of the several workbenches.
If the tools are needed at a work site, then each workbench and its tool must be moved separately to the work site, and sufficient space must be made available at the work site to hold all the workbenches and tools. Often this has meant that less tools were taken to the work site than were actually needed, to save transportation problems and cost.
One prior art solution to this problem is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,206 entitled "Portable Workstation", issued Jul. 11, 1995 to McAllister. McAllister describes a workbench having multiple tools mounted thereon. Each tool is mounted such that it can be pivoted down away from the workbench, and thus out of the way. When the tool is needed, it is pivoted up into place, and the workpiece is moved into position to be used with the tool. While McAllister is an improvement over the prior art of multiple workbenches, it has some limitations. McAllister is designed to pivot the tool out of the way to a location below, or beside, the workbench. Many tools, such as common woodworking tools, are very heavy and it would be difficult to pivot these tools. For example, FIG. 1 of McAllister shows a bandsaw 28 in a position to be pivoted beneath the bench table surface 56. Most band saws are quite large for pivoting in this manner, and even when pivoted, the saw would be in the way of many workpieces. Further, the workpiece must be positioned differently for each tool, thus considerable workpiece repositioning space is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,353 entitled "Multipurpose Material Working Tool" issued Feb. 5, 1985 to Sproat, Jr. provides multiple tools on a single workbench, however, while it appears that while some of the tools are movable, they do not appear to be movable to an extent that would allow them to be moved out of the way of a workpiece. Sproat, Jr. also requires that the workpiece be repositioned each time it is to be used with a different tool.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method or apparatus which allows multiple tools to be mounted to a workbench and minimizes the movement to a workpiece while being worked with the various tools. The present invention meets these needs.